Hunter: Crossroads

Chapter 22

Penny held the arrowhead right up to her nose, inspecting it closely as she twirled the stick of it between her fingers.

"I want the carbon shaft, and-" I tried not to laugh as she looked cross-eyed, and failed terribly as she started her order.

I looked away quickly as Penny put the arrow down on the counter, and daring to turn back she glared at me.

"If you're going to laugh over the word shaft, again, you can go now." She huffed, turning to the Tracker behind the counter with an apologetic smile. "Excuse my friend. She has the maturity of a ten-year-old boy."

"Of course Miss Grimm. I've got your previous order history here. The V-D Twenty seems to be your usual choice." Victoria scrolled up and down on the screen, yet I noticed her giving me the side-eye the whole time which made me a little nervous. "Your father-"

"It's Mrs Gibson* now, and my father is irrelevant." Penny cut Victoria off, not impressed by the mention of her Dad. She got out her bank card and slid it across the counter. "I want a new account, all charges are to go on here from now on."

"Congratulations," Victoria mumbled obediently, taking the card as she began to type.

"It's all your mother's fault. How did I get dragged into helping her with her archery classes? The stuff they use at the Academy is terrible, like really Mr Bunting, give your wife a better budget to work with." Penny sighed. "On second thought, Victoria, I'll take all of those, and if you can ship out at least forty more boxes of them to Huntington Academy, I'll manage the expense."

Victoria's eyes widened before she just nodded along, doing what was asked.

"Can we go now? I'm hungry and this place smells like old socks."

"Excuse me, can I just ask, are you, Elise Bunting?" Victoria quickly asked, forgetting her current task. "As in, the Elise Bunting, the Hunter?"

"Ah, yeah. Why?" I don't hide my hesitation.

"I am a big fan! Huge. I thought it was you when you came in, but I didn't want to intrude, but it is you and I have to say hi. My cousin is too. She was part of the crew that collected those um, portal stone things, from that warehouse. I am so jealous she got to help the Valkyrie, but do you think I could get a picture?" She rambled, her face slowly turning red as she reached for her phone. "She's going to love this!"

Penny rolled her eyes and I smiled awkwardly at Victoria. "Um, sure."

"Whatever happened to that prophet? Just seemed like they wanted to cause trouble to me." Victoria raced around the counter, throwing her arm over my shoulders as the pair of us stared at our reflection on the phone.

I smiled for the sake of the photo, and now it was Penny who was trying not to laugh, as Victoria hugged me too, letting go as she looked embarrassed.

"Well, that was her goal, and she caused a lot of trouble by the end," I told Victoria who gave a little clap as she just stood there grinning at me.

"What happened to her?" She quickly tapped away on her phone, no doubt sending the picture to her cousin.

"Um, I killed her." And she nearly killed me; minor detail.

"Of course you did! You're Elise Bunting!"

"Victoria, my order?" Penny interrupted, and seeing how serious Penny looked, she nodded and went back to the computer a little calmer.

"It must be so great to be a part of your family and doing all these amazing things. My Mum hates that I work here. She thinks I should be doing more than ordering weapons for everyone else to use. She's old school, you know, work until you're dead." Her blush deepens.